By NOAH TABORDA
Kansas Reflector
TOPEKA — Since the pandemic began in March, the Family Crisis Center in Wichita has stretched its resources thin to provide space for survivors of domestic violence and their families to recuperate.
Amanda Meyers, executive director for the crisis center, said she had to cut capacity by two-thirds in the 25-person shelter to maintain proper social distancing and avoid cross-contamination.
“It’s a momentous challenge, to say the least, to not only keep people safe from their potential abuser or attacker but from a global pandemic as well,” Meyers said.
Domestic violence support programs offering emergency shelter across Kansas were already often at capacity and turning to alternative methods before the pandemic. Amid COVID-19, programs are struggling with added alternative housing costs and no discernible end to the pandemic.
Last year, Kansas sexual and domestic violence services and programs served nearly 70,000 people statewide. Of those, 4,591 people found refuge in places like the Family Crisis Center’s emergency shelter.
From the 2018 fiscal year to the 2019 fiscal year, Meyers said, the organization’s hotel budget for shelter overflow increased by more than 700%. During the pandemic, the crisis center has rented between three and five hotel rooms each night and spent over $10,000 each month to house those in need.
“We were seeing more broken teeth and black eyes and chunks of hair being pulled out because people weren’t going to school or work,” Meyers said. “Even at maximum capacity, we had to provide services to those in need because domestic violence knows no boundaries, not even a pandemic.”
In April, the Wichita Police department reported a 65% increase in aggravated battery domestic violence cases and a 39% increase in aggravated assault domestic violence cases compared to the same time period during the previous three years.
Despite these reports, many programs statewide saw a decrease in the frequency of hotline phone calls and shelter requests, said Joyce Grover, executive director of the Kansas Coalition Against Sexual and Domestic Violence. The shelters, however, never ceased to provide services, and calls have returned to pre-pandemic rates, she said.
“Unfortunately, many shelters are congregate-style living arrangements where people share a bathroom or a kitchen, and that is a challenge for social distancing,” Grover said.
That is true at the YWCA Center for Safety and Empowerment in Topeka’s emergency shelter. It is a one-family home with 19 beds, but with so many off limits, it turned to hotels to bridge the gap, said Becca Spielman, executive director of the center.
“It’s important for people to understand that we will never turn someone away who needs shelter. It just might not be in a conventional way,” Spielman said.
In west Kansas, Options Domestic and Sexual Violence Services also turned to hotels because its 14-bed shelter now only sleeps a family of four. Moving into temporary housing is already a disorienting process, so the organization provides a prep kit of essentials for families moving into the hotel, said executive director Jennifer Hecker.
But hotel rooms are not cheap, and the expenses have put a serious dent in the Hays program’s coffers. Hecker said the organization spent its entire hotel budget for 2020 on two clients in two weeks at the beginning of the pandemic.
“Our limitations on fundraising has been a very big challenge when we can’t gather in person or do any of the usual fundraising methods,” Hecker said. “We are relying on donations from generous individuals, local businesses, churches and state grants throughout the pandemic.”
Lately, Hecker said, she has received more phone calls about how to help combat this crisis. She encourages advocacy. If more people talk about and understand the ways domestic violence can negatively impact the survivor and a community, she believes, more robust funding will follow.
Without a clear timeline for when these shelters will return to full capacity, Hecker knows the best she can do is focus on providing services.
“We absolutely have no crystal ball here,” Hecker said. “We don’t know how many people we will need to put in the hotel or for how long. It’s completely unpredictable and the one thing we really can’t control.”
Programs and services
Kansas Coalition Against Sexual and Domestic Violence
Counties served: Statewide
24/7 Kansas Crisis Hotline: 888-363-2287
Counties served: Cowley, Sedgwick, Sumner
24/7 crisis line at 316-267-SAFE
Options Domestic and Sexual Violence Services
Counties served: Cheyenne, Decatur, Ellis, Gove, Graham, Logan, Norton, Osborne, Phillips, Rawlins, Rooks, Russell, Sheridan, Sherman, Smith, Thomas, Trego, Wallace
24/7 help line: 800-794-4624
24/7 live chat options: 1) Text “HOPE” to 847411, 2) download My Mobile Options, a free live chat app, or 3) visit the website
YWCA Center for Safety and Empowerment
Counties served: Jackson, Shawnee, Wabaunsee
24/7 help line: 888-822-2983
National Domestic Violence Hotline
800-799-7233 or text “LOVEIS” to 22522
National Sexual Assault Hotline
800-656-4673